Grazie a Dio!

Although it has only been a few days since I have posted, I have SO much to say, but will try to limit some of it to this one post and another to tomorrow.

I got some good feedback from my last post and will answer questions in upcoming post to those who became a little more curious about "my story." Feel free to ask questions, I have no problem answering them :-)

Friday was my birthday and I must admit, I have never had a more emotionally moving birthday ever. I'm not a very emotional person to begin with - my friends actually tell me I have no heart because I'm not one to cry. But I will admit some tears were shed this past weekend. So here's the run down as to why with some highlights from my 4 day long birthday:

- Thursday night Kyle, Rogério, and my new roommate Bruno all went to a bar near my apt to get dinner and a few drinks and we texted a couple of people to join us. People came and went. At midnight our sidewalk table had reached about 8 people, and Gi picks up her cell phone and goes, "It's Friday!" Which resulted in happy birthday being sung in at least 3 languages! Needless to say, it was the perfect way to start my birthday with some of my favorite people here sitting at an outdoor bar on a beautiful SP night over great conversation and food.

- Friday morning I get in to work with lots of fun hugs and wishes... but then a little before lunch, a bunch of my friends and coworkers round the corner singing happy birthday with gifts in hand! Apparently a bunch of people chipped in and got me a DVD player (!) and these fun pillow cases and a pillow (I only had one pillow for my full/queen sized bed and everyone was making fun of me for it... sigh*)

- Friday was also filled with phone calls from friends and family. The toughest was when my family called. My first phone call in the morning was from my brother and mother and my mother cried because this was the first birthday I had spent away from her. So I immediately told her to stop crying because it was MY birthday and there shall be no crying on my special day!! And so I made her laugh a little. Which I think helped both of us.

- The same night, I headed home with my many gifts and one of my friends I made in Rio, Stefan, who is from Germany and backpacking all over Brazil, was there with a friend of his and Kyle - they were staying for the weekend! We then headed to the karaoke bar where my friend Nina was waiting for us and sang (I apologize to who was there) and drank the night away along with a couple more friends who showed up.

- Saturday was the climax of the weekend. After a laid back day, the festivities began with a pregame at my apartment which ended up lasting 3 hours and being one of the funnest parties I have ever attended here in Brazil. Some of the people who are most special to me here in Brazil were there and they were all getting to know each other and we were chatting, drinking, listening to music, playing with the balloons kyle blew up all by himself to decorate my apt (95 of them!), and overall enjoying each other's company which I <333. style="font-style: italic;">Grazie a Dio!* after polishing off 2 bottles of vodka, one of sake (all in the form of caipirinhas and shots), 30+ beers, and a few sips of cachaça - only to buy another bottle of Skyy @ the club and dancing until they kicked us out.

- Sunday Kyle and I had a light lunch and rested until I started to make a light dinner (it was really hot out, light food is always good, haha) because my aunt was coming over and bringing cake (chocolate with fresh fruits and whipped cream icing - yummm). A few friends ended up coming over to say goodbye to Kyle as well, so we headed to mine and Kyle's favorite bar near my apt (they have good fresh juice and sausage on the grill there) and chatted until midnight, a.k.a. when the bar closed.

Needless to say, my body should be hating me right now. But my heart is loving me and everyone around me so much that my body isn't ligando** as much.

See you tomorrow!

beijos.

*Grazie a Dio! is "Thanks to God" in Italian and Graças a Deus is what it is in Portuguese - which I have been using a lot lately and which is so conveniently the name of the club we went to!** ligando - slang for taking note of; minding - literally, it means "calling."